Numerous Early Comers 



his garden to see what he could bring to cheer me, and 

 this bright little Grape Hyacinth suggested itself. It lived 

 in my window in that London square until I could bring 

 it and my Convalescent home, so for association's sake alone 

 I should treasure it, but I also rejoice in its wee blue 

 flowers, which never fail to appear in a succession from 

 December to March. 



I never had a name for it, but have called it Dr. Lowe's ; 

 it is probably a form of M. botryoides, and I have forgotten, 

 if he ever told me, where he got it from. He was one of a 

 delightful old school of amateur gardeners, a friend of Miss 

 Hope, Harpur-Crewe, Miss Marianne North, Isaac Henry, 

 and many others, only venerated names to me, but many 

 of their treasures have passed into my hands through 

 Dr. Lowe's kindness to me when a struggling beginner. 

 Puschkinia scilloides, the Striped Squill, I owe to him, a 

 pretty little grey thing like the ghost of a Scilla come back 

 to earth ; and if you buy what is offered as P. libanotica you 

 will get scilloides, for they are but one and the same, though 

 often listed as distinct, and sometimes you are invited to pay 

 more for one than for the other, so always buy the cheaper. 



Cyclamen Count and C. ibericum and their garden-raised 

 hybrid offspring Atkinsii should have been showing crimson 

 or white buds lying on the earth since mid-December, and 

 be raising them up and turning back their petals before the 

 days grow perceptibly longer. The two first are constantly 

 confused with each other, but are easy to distinguish, as 

 Coum has plain green leaves, while those of ibericum have 

 more or less of handsome, grey spotting or zonal bands, and 

 it is altogether the larger and handsomer plant. I won't 

 say that puzzling hybrid intermediates besides Atkinsii do 

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